Satoshi Tajiri Original GAMEFREAK magazine

Hello all.

I’ve found myself completely immersed as of late in a specific quadrant in the Pokémon Universe. Creator Satoshi Tajiri. I knew this already, but me revisiting the early Pokémon days has reignited the fire. I’m wondering if anyone has EVER seen an original Gamefreak magazine pop up online or for sale anywhere ? These were made by Satoshi Tajiri as basically video game guides and cheats in the 1980s muchhhh before Pokemon. Around 1985 Ken Sugimori saw a zine at a shop and contacted Tajiri wanting to do the artwork for the zine and this is how it all began. Tajiri used to ship out thousands of copies from his home with the help of Sugimori and his family. I would very much like to own an original 1982-1989 copy of Gamefreak when it was purely Satoshi and Sugimori ! Satoshi’s ability to stay completely out of the light since 1999 is very admirable and impressive. You don’t see anything on this guy.

Below are pictures of the original zines by Sugimori and Tajiri and a video starting at 4:12 explaining this beginning. Where are these zines ? Why are there barely any pictures ? If anyone has one.

Let me know :blush:



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That’s crazy, I was just on Wikipedia this week reading about this same information. I didn’t realize exactly how Pokémon got started. So cool to see some examples of the zine that started Sugimori on the scene!

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Yea pretty awesome for sure. Now I wish I could find a dam zine sooo bad. I think they’re extinct or in some hole in the wall magazine shops in Japan

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I needed this, thank you for posting!

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Great video, thanks for that!

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Thanks guys. No biggie there’s such a cool history of the life of Sugimori and Tajiri way before Pokemon. Early days of Gamefreak are awesome to read about. They created multiple video games together and hundreds of magazine issues. Pretty cool stuff. Feel like no one cares here though unless it’s hidden fates/champions path/burning shadows reprint ?? Threads. lol all good

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I’ve been looking for these sporadically on eBay for the past 5 years or so and I’ve yet to come across any so far.

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6 years late, but saw one on Goldin and stumbled on this post after some research. Goldin

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I get having this graded, but at the same time it’s a shame not being able to know what’s inside it.

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All issues are scanned and archived here: 同人誌GAME FREAK : GAME FREAK : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Can’t believe the price on that auction. Put it in a slab and suddenly everyone wants it.

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Thanks for sharing! I’m going to have fun checking these out.

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You just made me cry that I missed this

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there’s still 8 days left!

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I have a copy of issue 10. Does anyone know it’s worth? I am thinking of finding a new home for it, but I’ll probably get it framed. I’ve kept it in a shoebox for a decade. I posted it to Imgur a decade ago.

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I’d be interested in making you an offer.

Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @maxmaxcity

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